Why and How to Write Minimal and Valid HTML, a Link Guide

Published on Jul 24, 2025 (updated Oct 6, 2025), filed under development, html, minimalism, conformance, performance, optimization. (Share this post, e.g., on Mastodon.)

If you’re interested in writing HTML that is as compact as possible for a payload as small as possible, and in writing HTML that is error-free and conforms to the HTML standard, then this is a link guide for you. Specializing in minimal and valid HTML, it refers to some of my writings about these subjects.

Why Minimal HTML

• HTML and Performance: Leave Out Optional Tags and Quotes
• Write HTML, the HTML Way (Not the XHTML Way)
• The Magic of the Most Minimal HTML Possible (and Why We Don’t Make Use of It)
• A Short Guide to Minimal Web Development

How to Write Minimal HTML

• Optional HTML: Everything You Need to Know
• The Most Minimal Valid HTML Document
• The HTML History and Optimization Cheat Sheet
• HTML Minifier Next (a Maintained Fork of HTML Minifier)
• An HTML Optimizer’s Config for HTML Minifier
• Minimal Social Markup—just for social markup

Why Valid HTML

• 2025: 0 of the Global Top 200 Websites Use Valid HTML—to illustrate the pervasiveness of HTML non-conformance (i.e., of invalid HTML)
• The Two Great Things About Validation/Conformance
• The 3-Second Frontend Developer Test
• We Need to Talk More About Conformance, if We Want to Stop Fantasy HTML
  • How Often Should We Speak About HTML Conformance?
• On the Uniting Power of a Commitment to HTML Conformance

How to Write Valid HTML

• HTML Conformance: A Comparison of 6.5 npm Validator Packages (With 1.5 Recommendations)

(You can find more articles about minimalism and conformance on Frontend Dogma.)

What Else to Consider for HTML Optimization

• Examples of HTML optimization—my ebook series
• The 3 Ground Rules for Writing HTML
• The 6 Ways of Writing HTML (and Their Combinations)
• What Is HTML Optimization? What Is It Not?

As with other articles, I’m likely to update and extend this one. If you have feedback or suggestions, please let me know!

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m an engineering lead, guerrilla philosopher, and indie publisher. I’ve worked as a technical lead and engineering manager at various companies (e.g., Google); I’m an active web and tool developer (code optimization, digital defense), a contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and a book author (O’Reilly, Frontend Dogma).

I love trying things—in web development and engineering management, but also in politics and philosophy, where I hold to one idea in particular: that we can only be well if we take good care of everyone. Here on meiert.com I talk about some of my perspectives and experiences. (Interpret charitably but be critical—and share feedback and advice that makes my work better.)